When Bobby Robson died we lost a fabulous coach, an inspirational coach. I share his love for a sport which I live and breathe – I want to pass on that understanding of what a wonderful game it is to my players so they fall in love with it like I did.

Before he died he spoke about what was important to him.

“Pele called it the beautiful, didn’t he? It’s a perfect game. It’s a game of athleticism, a game of power and competition and strength – anybody who thinks football is just a game of deftness of touch without those other things wouldn’t win. You need courage, you need steel in your make up. But it’s the deftness too, the control – Waddle, Barnes, Pele, Di Stefano, Puskas, Denis Law, George Best – the spontaneous things that players like that can do, that’s what’s beautiful.”

“And then it’s the national game. Every weekend two million people play it in this country, not watch it, play it.”

And that’s where we come in. We are coaching those players and we are the ones who sell the perfect game every week to our players. That responsibility rests on our shoulders, we make the game beautiful to them, so they enjoy it and remember for the rest of their lives how much fun they have and why they will always follow the beautiful game.

Remember the World Cup Italia 1990, when Bobby Robson so nearly won it for us…